Out of the Blue

An hour later Sammy woke up. Molly went to the kitchen to warm up his bottle. She heard a noise and looked up. Wes was in the window peeking in at her. She let out a scream. Instantly, Paul came running in. “What is it?” She pointed to the window. “Wes was looking in at me.” Paul went to the back door and looked out. It was pitch black out there. “Doesn’t Sally have a yard light?” He asked. Molly pushed several buttons on the wall switch before she got the right one. By that time, there was no sign of anyone out there. “Is the bottle warm enough yet?” he asked. When she nodded, he said, “Let’s leave this light on.” He groaned as he once again tried to settle down on the floor across the room from where Molly was feeding the baby. “Paul, are you okay?” she asked. “Yeah. It’s just that my stump is giving me a problem. I’ve had the prosthetic on too long, but I don’t dare take it off. It takes too long to get it back on again.” It was the first time that Paul had talked about his stump and the prosthetic. She had never given it any thought. He made it all seem so natural, like it was no problem at all. She wondered how often he had had problems with it hurting, and not mentioning it to anyone. “I wish I could help you,” she replied. “I know. Don’t worry about it. I’ll survive. The main thing is to be alert and ready to move if we have to.” All got very quiet. Finally, after a big burp, Sammy closed his eyes. Molly closed her eyes. Despite the excitement, she fell asleep. She dreamed she was in the kitchen with Wes. He was making cookies. How strange! “What are you doing?” she asked him. “You’ll see,” he replied with a sneer. Her eyes began to smart. “Wes, Wes, the cookies are burning!” She woke up with a start. “What the?” Then it dawned on her. This was no dream. The kitchen was filled with smoke. She jumped up, and yelled. “Fire!” Paul grabbed the New Year’s Eve horn and blew it. Within second everyone in the house was hurrying down the stairs. Molly grabbed the now screaming Sammy and her purse. Paul grabbed Molly. “Everyone out!” he yelled. Once outside, Paul counted them. “Yep, everyone’s here. Let’s get as far away from the house as we can.” He pointed to a street light across the street. “Let’s gather there,” he pointed. The boys huddled around their mother. “Mom, you don’t believe Dad did this, do you?” Terry asked. “I saw him peeking in the window when I went to feed the baby,” she responded. The fire sirens startled Sammy who had just started to quiet down, and his screams started up again. Paul took off his lightweight jacket and spread it on the ground. “Here, Molly sit on this,” he said. Sally and Charlie walked to the other side of the street where Molly sat holding their baby. “Here Sally, sit here,” she said. Sally sank down where Molly had been sitting, and took the screaming baby from Molly’s arms. Rocking back and forth, she tried to quiet him down. “He’s probably hungry. He nodded off before he finished his bottle,” Molly remarked. The boys looked around. “Wow. I can’t believe this is happening. It’s like Déjà vu,” Terry said. “Not really. We weren’t here to see it the first time,” Tim replied. Paul approached one of the firemen who seemed to be giving the orders and told him about Wes’ face in the kitchen window. He listened intently, and then put a call in to the sheriff’s department. “You’ll have to get all those cars out of the driveway and off the street,” he told Paul. Paul relayed the message to the others. “How can we?” Terry asked. “The keys are in the house.” “I have my keys,” Molly said as she held up her purse. “But I can’t move my car until the others are out of the way.” “I have mine,” Charlie yelled. “But that’s not going to help any. Gina, you were the last one in the driveway. Do you have your keys?” She shook her head. “Sorry, they’re in my purse in my room.” Paul explained the situation to the fire chief. “We’ll try to work around them, but I can’t promise anything,” he said as he surveyed the driveway. “What about a tow truck?” Paul asked. The chief shook his head. “There’s no room for it to work.” He pointed to the already filled street with fire trucks and the sheriff’s car that had just pulled up. The sheriff picked Paul out of the crowd. “We’ll find him. This time he has done something we can arrest him for,” he said as he motioned for his partner to go to Wes’ house. Next came the Red Cross van. It had to park near the end of the street but two of its workers approached Paul. Right behind them was Pastor Mark walking as fast as he could. “How can we help? What do you need right now?” one of them asked. “We have a baby here with no formula and no clean diapers,” Molly said as she pointed toward Sally and the screaming infant.” “We can take care of that. What about the rest of you? Are you all okay?” “What I wouldn’t give for a cup of coffee,” Sally moaned. “We can take care of that also. Do you have a place you can stay?” “No,” Molly replied. “My ex-husband’s house,” she nodded toward the house she once called home, “is unsafe. He’s the one who started the fire.”